This report examines the ways that Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has failed to reunite Canadians with their Palestinian family members stuck in Gaza through the Temporary Resident Visa Program for Gazans (TRV), as Israel wages a plausible genocide and campaign of mass starvation. The TRV program is a special immigration measure launched by IRCC in early 2024 to save family members of Palestinian Canadians subject to a genocidal assault in Gaza.  Access the full report here. Continue reading

Israel’s devastating war on Gaza and the routine violence faced by Palestinians under military occupation have produced a catastrophic human toll, leading the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to change its actions to prevent the “real and imminent risk” of genocide. The UN Human Rights Council and independent UN experts have called on all states to cease the sale and transfer of weapons to Israel immediately, or else risk complicity in war crimes or acts of genocide. Although Parliament voted in March 2024 in support of ending arms transfers to Israel, Canada’s actions to date have been limited and insufficient, allowing weapons to continue to flow to Israel. Canada cannot continue to export arms to Israel and maintain a close working relationship with the Israeli military so long as it is involved in egregious violations of international humanitarian law. Canada must use its diplomatic and economic leverage vis-a-vis Israel’s defense and security establishment to bring an immediate end to the violence.  

The paper analyzes the role and actions of Special Envoy Deborah Lyons, appointed by the Canadian government to combat antisemitism following 7 October. It highlights how her collaboration with Israeli officials and promotion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism work to suppress Palestinian perspectives and legitimate criticism of Israeli apartheid. The paper argues that Lyons' misrepresentation of pro-Palestinian activism and slogans as antisemitic underscore systemic issues of racism and bias within Canadian governance structures and, thus, advocates for her removal.  Access the full report here.   Continue reading

Earlier this year, a real estate tour called the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” was held in Montreal and Toronto that included the sale of properties within settlements in the occupied West Bank, including Neve Daniel, Ma'aleh Adumim and Efrat. This amounts to the illegal and open sale of properties in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), in clear violation of international law, the Canadian Criminal Code, UN resolutions and international human rights and humanitarian law. However, the issue of Canadian trade with Israeli settlements goes much deeper than one event. It is time that Canada stopped ignoring these crimes. Israeli settlements are war crimes under Canadian law. To address this broader problem, CJPME urges a whole-of-government approach to ending Canadian involvement in Israel’s colonial war crimes through the below series of coordinated measures, which falls under the jurisdiction of various ministerial portfolios.

Submission from CJPME to MP Matthew Green’s Nakba Bill Initiative, authored by Lena El-Malak, PhD, LLM; Nadia Abu-Zahra, PhD; Michael Bueckert, PhD; and Alex Paterson, MA. The submission includes recommendations for how the Canadian government can acknowledge this historical injustice, as well as its own role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and take steps to combat Canadian complicity in ongoing Israeli policies of erasure, displacement and dispossession. Issued April 2024 Click here to download the full document as a PDF Continue reading

This joint report provides recommendations to the Canadian government regarding the renewal of the federal Anti-Racism Strategy. It argues that Canada's strategy must address antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian racism together hand-in-hand using an intersectional framework. This is a joint submission from Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA), Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV), and Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council (CMPAC). Issued May 2024 Click here to download the full report as a PDF Continue reading

For many years, the Canadian government has opposed all efforts by Palestinians to seek justice or relief in international forums. Canada’s diplomatic record is significantly tarnished by its one-sided support for Israel, which shields Israel from criticism and upholds impunity for violations of human rights international law. In this Position Paper, CJPME outlines a strategy for Canada that emphasizes the equitable application of international law and the need for accountability.

This report highlights the widespread problem of anti-Palestinian racism (APR) in Canadian society, exposing more than 500 examples of this form of racism in online written content in 2022. The report argues that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism should be recognized as a key purveyor of APR, as it drives conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel, leading to unfair and defamatory attacks on Palestinians and their supporters. Issued December 2023 Click here to download the full report as a PDF Continue reading

This report evaluates the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) and its relationship to the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). The report demonstrates that CIFTA treats the OPT as if it was already formally annexed by Israel, that Palestinians were never a partner or signatory to the agreement, and that Palestinians do not really benefit economically from it. The report concludes with recommendations for how Canada can support trade with Palestine without reinforcing Israel’s occupation and apartheid. Issued September 2023 Click here to download the full report as a PDF Continue reading

This report compares the treatment of Palestinian child detainees in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to both Jewish settler detainees that live in the same territory and Canadian child detainees. In doing so, this analysis exposes the disparity in the way that Palestinian children are treated, as part of Israel’s system of apartheid and state-sponsored violence. At the end, several recommendations for the Canadian government to take to protect the rights of Palestinian Children are provided. Issued June 14, 2023 Click here to download the full report as a PDF Continue reading